Rhabdomyolysis

Dissolution of the skeletal muscle, resulting in extravasation of the intracellular toxic metabolites into the circulatory system, and the accompanying manifestations, constitutes the clinical syndrome of rhabdomyolysis. The most frequent complication of this syndrome is acute renal failure, and its most life threatening side effects are hyperkalemia and metabolic acidosis. Intracellular release of free iron from hemeprotein and the oxidant stress is the principle mechanism by which the proximal tubular cytotoxicity is produced. The potential pathogenic mechanisms and the strategies to prevent rhabdomyolysis induced acute renal failure are discussed in this article.